ABSTRACT
Some key changes which constitute fundamental challenges to primary teachers include requirements that all children master specific algorithms such as long multiplication, short division and long division, together with quite abstract calculations with fractions at a very early stage in their life at school. The changes raise important issues about the nature of the mathematical knowledge that children should be gaining during their seven years at primary school, and, accordingly, about the knowledge of the subject that their teachers need to bring to the task. The knowledge of mathematics required by the teachers intending to teach either Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 children differs significantly from that developed and tested by traditional GCSE courses, or by conventional higher education mathematics courses. The companion website also contains a 'self-audit test' designed to help readers to assess their own level of mathematical ability, as well as answers to all the 'check' questions dotted throughout the text.
